Experts differ on radiation releases

[Susan L Gawarecki <loc@icx.net>]

Experts differ on radiation releases

http://www.reformer.com/Stories/0,1413,102~8860~1877575,00.html#

By TOBY HENRY

Brattleboro Reformer Staff



Thursday, January 08, 2004 - BRATTLEBORO -- A 20 percent power boost for 

the Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant could mean 40 percent more 

radiation released into the environment in the event of an accident, an 

expert witness in the "uprate" case has warned.



Marvin Resnikoff, a senior associate of the New York-based Radioactive 

Waste Management Associates, said the proposed uprate would greatly 

increase the amount of radioactive material in the plant's suppression 

pool. He said that a post-uprate accident at the plant caused by the 

loss of reactor coolant could result in a larger spread of contaminants 

than what would occur at the plant's current 540-megawatt power level.



Resnikoff's comments were submitted as testimony to the Vermont Public 

Service Board on Tuesday. Resnikoff, who has been a consultant on 

radiation dispersal for about 30 years and has just opened a new office 

in Bellows Falls, is a witness for the New England coalition, a local 

anti-nuclear power group and an intervenor in the uprate case before the 

board. A decision from the board for a certificate of public good on the 

uprate is expected in mid-March.



In his testimony, Resnikoff admits that he "does not fully understand 

the intimate details of the Vermont Yankee reactor," but maintains that 

the consequences of an accident "will be greater than calculated by 

Vermont Yankee."



"The company said it would be less because of their administrative 

controls -- the use of diesel-powered generators, increasing the 

concentration of hydrogen in the suppression pool -- but at a higher 

power level, the time to react is shorter and the temperature and 

pressure inside the reactor is increased," Resnikoff said on Wednesday. 

"I have some serious questions that these (control measures) would happen."



Resnikoff said that the increase of hydrogen in the suppression pool, a 

measurement called the pH level, would allow more radioactive iodine to 

remain inside the pool during an accident. The procedure is one of the 

plant's administrative controls, a series of actions that are put into 

place to deal with an emergency.



Resnikoff said his figures are based on a Swedish study discussed in a 

December 2000 meeting before the federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission's 

Advisory Committee on Reactor Safeguards. According to the study, he 

said, a 14.7 percent uprate at Switzerland's Leibstatd nuclear power 

station led to a 30 percent increase in fission products -- the 

radioactive materials created by the plant's nuclear reactions.



Resnikoff said that the larger spread of radiation in the drifting plume 

after a serious accident could mean that local residents would need a 

wider evacuation area. In his testimony, Resnikoff submitted maps 

indicating that the plume would extend past Montpelier and into Canada.



"You would have a larger evacuation area, and that would mean a cost to 

the state and its citizens," he said.



Vermont Yankee's senior nuclear engineer Pedro Perez disputes 

Resnikoff's testimony, noting that the coalition's witness doesn't give 

any evidence to back up his assertion that the uprate would cause a 

larger radioactive plume. The plant has done its own calculations, based 

on five years of local weather measurements, and even assuming a 

worst-case weather scenario, Perez said that a wider evacuation area is 

not called for.



"It's inaccurate to say that you have to increase the evacuation area," 

he said. "I can't imagine how he came up with that conclusion."



Perez added that he has read the Swedish study cited by Resnikoff, and 

said that the study was intended to measure the release of radiation 

over time. But Vermont Yankee's current NRC-mandated guidelines, which 

apply to all United States nuclear plants, assume an "almost 

instantaneous" release of radioactivity, which requires a much different 

basis of measurement than what was used in the study, Perez said.



"Our regulations say that we have to assume it's nearly instantaneous, 

about two minutes, and I think that's conservative," he said. "No matter 

what the design of the plant is, that is what the NRC tells us we have 

to assume. He's not comparing apples to apples, and I think he's 

misapplying the results."



Perez also said that he found errors in Resnikoff's testimony, 

especially with regard to existing radiation calculations at the plant. 

Perez said Resnikoff claims the Yankee fenceline radiation dose during 

an accident would be 280 REM. The actual calculation is 94 REM, Perez 

said. He also defended the plant's emergency control measures, rejecting 

Resnikoff's skepticism that the emergency measures might not be 

implemented in time to prevent the spread of radiation.



"He does admit, and I have to give him credit for saying it, that he is 

not an expert on boiling-water reactors," Perez said. "I am familiar 

with boiling-water reactors, and in our current licensing bases, we 

already have procedures in place, and our operators are trained in the 

simulator, to initiate water sprays to clean the area out. So I don't 

know what he means by 'new administrative controls.'"

-- 

.....................................................

Susan L. Gawarecki, Ph.D., Executive Director

Oak Ridge Reservation Local Oversight Committee

102 Robertsville Road, Suite B, Oak Ridge, TN 37830

Toll free 888-770-3073 ~ www.local-oversight.org

.....................................................





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